This is how it has been since time immemorial: every 12-year-old resident of Longevern cannot stand the inhabitants of Velrance. And every Velran, having barely mastered the alphabet, hates the Longeverans. Who doesn’t shake with impatience in class - run away and teach your enemies a good lesson! - that coward and traitor. Everyone in both villages is shaking with impatience, and rushing after classes to the next battle - well, how exactly will it become decisive? There is no war without trophies: boys celebrate triumph by cutting off buttons and fasteners from the enemy’s clothes, so that the enemy, holding his pants, wanders to parental thrashing! The Button War went on unchanged for years, until one day the leader of the Longeverans came up with the idea of fighting naked - you will avoid shame and your father’s belt! Who knew that this trick would lead a protracted conflict to a not at all childish battle... Louis Pergot knew a lot about boy psychology: he created the book, inspired by his teaching experience. At the age of 28, Louis Pergot won the Prix Goncourt, ahead of such grandees as Guillaume Apollinaire and Colette. And at the age of 33 he died in the First World War. “The Button War” was published in France in 1912, and it seems to contain an encrypted message: when hatred does not subside, it grows and the slightest stupidity can destroy a fragile peace. Filmed five times, earning fame as the grandfather of “Lord of the Flies,” the novel is published in Russian first. This became possible thanks to two masters - Mikhail Yasnov and Maria Brusovani. They managed to maintain the daring style of the classic and go beyond the scope of a historical novel. The publication is illustrated by Vadim Chelak and accompanied by a foreword and comments by Mikhail Yasnov.